OLAF or the Question of Applicability of Secondary Community Law to the ECB

On January 14 2000, the Commission sued the ECB on grounds of infringement of a regulation which concerns the investigations conducted by the European Anti-Fraud Office. This, for the time being, is the culminating point in the controversy between the Commission and the ECB, which reflects the still ongoing process of adaptation of the inter-institutional relationships to the changes which resulted from the commencement of the third stage of EMU, and of defining the ECBs powers. This article is intended to add to the discussion of the legal status of the ECB, which is indeed a highly controversial topic. The author concludes that the ECB, far from being a third party to the European Community (EC), or a new Community, is a highly developed instrument of the Community which was set up in order to help to achieve the Communitys objectives.